


Gaining the World

by moomoogoat



Series: Time Passes, Love is Lost [1]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 20:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16126073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moomoogoat/pseuds/moomoogoat
Summary: You had gained the world. You had a dragon, you were Queen, the war was won. For all that you had, something was missing.





	Gaining the World

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Companion One-Short to Islanzadí's Lament and The Heart Goes On.

You had spent your entire life ferrying the egg, a hope beyond all hopes that it would hatch. One day fate intervened while you were bearing the vessel, and something unexpected happened. You were waylaid by a shade and the egg found its way into a farmboy’s clutches. The egg chose him. From then on your world was awakened. 

A dragon rider. You had always hoped that the egg would hatch for you, but even so the news of a rider thrilled you. People had begun talking about the days of old returning to Alagaësia, the Riders being rebuilt and Galbatorix cast down. All of the talk, was just that, but deep down you knew. 

The first time you met him he was rescuing you, a beginning out of a fairy tale. You were the damsel in distress, grievously wounded and yet he had found you. As you woke he was by your side, holding your hand telling you of how brave you had been. He is but a youth, he is too naive you tell yourself. ‘But why does that matter?’ a voice says inside your head but you silence its words, denying their truth.

You told him that it would never work, contriving excuses. He was too young, you had obligations to your people, duties to uphold. Lies each and every one, devices hiding your true feelings. You see his gaze and know he loves you still. Part of you wishes to tell him, to open your heart, but it is squashed. 

The battle has been won, the burden he bore would crush a normal man, but he prevailed all the same. You were by his side, through thick and then. By the lake, before he left you was when he gave his final declaration of love. Lies. You let him go. He shared himself, his very name professing his love for you. But yet you could not do the same. 

The next time you see him his name has changed. His reliance and fixation on you has lessened, while he has only grown more apart of you. It’s ironic, that for so long he pined for you, but now you find yourself doing the same. 

It is ten long years before you see him again. You had longed for the day, and when it came it destroyed what was left of you. His fingers are entwined with that of his wife, his children at his side. He has everything, everything that you wanted, everything that he wished to share with you. Yet you are alone. 

You see him laughing, hoisting his daughter up by her waist, Saphira wrestling with his son. You see his children and your heart breaks, knowing that they could have been yours. As he places his daughter back on the ground and his eyes meet yours, seeing the undisguised longing. He gives you a look of pity, something you never thought you would have needed from him, but yet he gave it all the same. 

For as long as he waited, hoping and praying that you would choose him you did not. Your duties, your service to your people has been your whole life, in them you found meaning. But in them you also have lost everything, and you cannot help the tears that roll down your cheeks as you turn away from the scene that your heart aches for. 


End file.
